Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-08-28
Ax1aIf Ccnturx or Te,esrapi,y,


Speaking Of the progress of Tele-
eraphy the London Electrician SAYS:
A few years back, when the craze for
centennial celebrations was ut its
height, the suspicion arose that every
great man must have hourished and
every remarkable event must have oc-
cured exactly one or more centuries
ago. The promoters OF these anniger-
salies experienced no difficulties in re-
gard to dates. If the great man
was not born in the particular
year required, he obligingly died In
that year, or he did something
that constituted an epoch or land
mark at the quite correct moment:
ANY way the centenary was celebrated
with becoming enthusiasm, il not al
VANS with rigid respect to dates. In
the case of the jubilee which has just
been-or. rather, is still being-cele-
brated throughout the length and
br, adth of the land, no such historic
doubts have crept in; and similarly
with regard to the proposed jubilee
commemoration of the telegraph, fore
Swallowed in our last issue, the year
and the day are as nearly CO.
incident as the cxigencies of pub
lie life will permit. The first cleo
the telegraph of a really practical
SOFT in this country was worked on the
evening Of July 20, 1887, and on We'd
nesday evening, July q, 1887, its
fitch birthday, is TO be appropriately
celebrated. 1t was in the precincts OF
The metropolis that is to say, between
the Euston Square and Camden-Town
stations-that the FIRST electric telegram
was flashed, and within mile or two of
that famous spot the living representa-
tiyes OF Wheatestone and Cooke will do
honor to their memory and proclaim
with characteristic festivity the national
pride in these fifty years fruit OF their
lahois.
In another column will be found the
particulars of the proposed gathering,
Which, il is understood, will take the
form OF banquet, where every Eng
lisiman of mark whose name is asso-
ciated with the rise and progress OF
Geographic enterprise we feel sure will
be present. /: will, we imagine, be an
essentially English celebration; we
do not mean exclusively SO; that may
be as it happens. But the occasion
being one to mark the origin and rise
of an English invention, the expansion
of which has been largely, and in one
branch of it wholly, due to British
science, British capital, and British
energy, the assembly ought to be
British, and the demonstration q ma
tional one. Our claim to have iu-
vented the electric telegraph may be
disputed both on the continent OF Eu-
rope and in America, but nobody has
questioned the originality and utility
OF the system we propose to commemo-
rate as our own, or denied the rapidity
and yigor with which we have turned
| it TO account in every corner OF the
world. Ii was in "dingy little room
and by the light of flaring dip can
die" that the first words OF the
electric messenger over q distance
of less than two miles were spelled
out. Only fifty years have elapsed
since that memorable night; and We
see the whole world entwined In net
work of myriads of miles OF wire; and
from the shabby little office in Euston
Square, the mind naturally turns to the
gigantic proportions and splendid
eouipments OF the English Central
Telegraph Station to-day. From the
Holborn Restaurant, where the banquet
is TO be held, and where the electric
light itself an outcome of electrical
rcsearch-will illuminate the proceed
ings, every word that is spoken might
| be transmitted to the other side OF
the Atlantic in less time than 1t took
those two famous amateurs to make
their first essay in telegraphy. That
tumultuous sensation which Wheat
stone experienced on hearing the click
of the needles may in some degree be
shared by ms to-day; and It It be true
that he felt "all the magnitude OF the
invention then proved to be practicable
beyond cavil or dispute, the realization
Of bis widest dreams has added iresn
lustre to his name by attesting his bold
ness and foresight.
We have said that the claims OF Eng
land for priority in the invention OF tue
telegraph may he disputed, and We have
no need to assert them here. Proies
sor Morse. Who IVES working on . ar
ferent line TO attain the same enc -
that Of Wheststone and oooks e ~ ~